Improvement in setters and threaders for sewing-machine needles



S. M FURMAN. E

'SETTERS AND THEEAEEESEQE SEWING-MACHINE NEEDLES.

No.173,93 7. Patented Feb. 22,1876.

INVENTOHi N. PEI'HTSA PHOTO-UTHUGRAPHEE WASHiNGTON. D, C

UNITED STATES PAT NT OEEIOE.

SAMUEL M. FUEMANQOE HENDERSON, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD HIS RIGHT TO ooRNELIUs BAILEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN SETTERS AND THREADERS FOR SEWING-MACHINE NEEDLES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 173.937, dated February 2'2, 1876; application filed V 1 November 5, 1875.

Toall whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL ll/LFURMAN, of the city and county of Henderson, in the tion chine attachments which are incorporated with the machines to which they are applied, so as to be always ready for use.

The present device is a combined threader and setter, applied to the needle-carrier, and constructed and operating in a' peculiar manner, as hereinafter set forth.

Sewing-machines of all, or nearly all, the different makes, may be provided with this attachment, the general object of which is to facilitate the use of ordinary needles.

The attachment is' manipulated with the utmost ease, and is retracted automatically by the movement of the needle-bar.

By means of the attachment a needle can be set right at every attempt, and can be threaded by moonlight more readily than it could be threaded otherwise by daylight.

As a setter it serves also to insure setting the needle so that the loop will always be at right angles to the shuttle or hook, and with the needle thus set it is impossible for the machine to drop stitches.

Figure 1 is an elevation of a sewing-machine face-plate and needle-bar provided with this needle threader and setter. vertical section of the same on the line 2 2, Fig. 1, showing the attachment in different positions. Fig. 3 is a transverseseetion on the line 3 3, Figs. 1 and 2. Figs. 4 and 5 are sectional detail views on a larger scale.

Figs. 1, 2, and 3 show the faceplate P and needle-bar B of a Howe sewing-machine, taken for illustration. These are the only parts of any machine that require alteration, and the changes in these consist of a slot, a, in the former, and two longitudinal grooves, b 0, one within the other, in the needle-bar, to receive the needle threader and setter F. An ordinary needle, N, and set-screw S are shown as the kind in connection with which the device is designed to operate.

This invention relates to those sewing-ma- Fig. 2 is a 1 The main needle-bar groove b extends from about the middle of the bar to its lower end,

' ed, as shown in Fig. 1, and in full lines in Fig.

2, the funnel f is accommodated byan enlargement of the lower end of the groove b. The spring 6 keeps the funnel in contact with i the needle, and a small guide-groove, g, shown in Fig. 5, prevents the lateral deflection of either.

The inner needle-bar groove 0 receives a stop-pin, h, projecting from the upper end of the spring/e, and its length is determined by the distance from the orifice of the retracted funnel to the eye of the needle, or the point where this should be. This groove is shallow at its upper end, and deepens until it terminates in a square shoulder of sufficient depth to insure the arrest of the stop-pin, or, more properly, it shoals from this point to its upper end, where it deepens again, by an abrupt incline, to form a retaining-depression, 'i, which receives the stop-pin in the elevated or retracted position of the attachment.

The face-plate slot at receives two fingerpieces, j k, attached, respectively, to the slide cl and spring 6 at their upper ends. The

upper end of the slot accommodates the fingerpieces in their uppermost position. Its lower end is located a very little below the elevated position of the same when the needle-bar is lowered. In length the slot permits the reciprocation of the attachment slide when the needle-bar is elevated, and that of the latter when the slide is elevated, without contact between its endsand the finger-pieces.

As shown inFig. 4, the shank of the main fin ger-piece j passes freely through an orifice inthe spring 0 and is secured in the slide d, and the upper finger-piece 7a is combined with the stop-pin h, works freely through an orifice in the slide d, and is screw-threaded where it passes through the spring, so as to provide for adjusting the pin when its point wears. The upper surface of this finger-piece k is also roughened so that the finger will not slip on it.

Operation: When a needle is to be threaded or set, the finger is placed on the upper finger-piece 7a, a slight forward movement of which releases the attachment-slide d, and the whole is then pressed down as far as it will go, when the orifice of the funnel f will be found exactly where the eye of the needle should be. The thread end introduced in the funnel quickly finds its way through the eye of the needle already in position; and to set the needle, it is only necessary to introduce a pin or needle through the orifice of the funnel, to locate the eye at the proper depth, so as to form the loops at right angles to the shuttle or hook, as required for perfect work.

The attachment may be elevated by hand but, if not, it is retracted automatically at the first downstroke of the needle bar. v

The main finger-piece j comes in contact with the lowerend of the face-plate slot at, and is carried upward sufficiently for the stop-pin h to plate slot (it allows the outer ends of the fingerpieccs to pass through when the face-plate is removed, and by a second retraction of the stop-pin the attachment may then be removed from the needle-bar for inspection or repair.

The following is claimed as new, and of this invention, namely:

1. The combination, with a needle-carrier, of a needle threader and setter, adapted to slide down in front of the needle, and provided with a funnel and a stop to arrest this funnel in p oper position, substantially as herein illustrated and described.

2. The combination of the slide d, the spring 6, and the funnel f, the latter being supported by the spring, and constructed with a guidegroove, 9, to embrace the needle, as specified, for the purpose set forth.

3. In a sliding needle threader and setter, the stop-pin h, and-the spring 6 carrying the same, in combination with a needle-bar having a stop-groove, c, shoaling to its upper end and there terminating in a retaining-depression 1', having an "inclined bottom, as herein described, for the purpose set forth.

4:. The combination of the slided, spring 6,

funnel f, stop-pin h, and finger-piecesj k, with Witnesses:

C. H. JOHNSON, B. S. CHAMBERS. 

